Kerry Aces Confirmation Hearing

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Updated Apr. 21, 2017 1:43PM ET / Published Jan. 24, 2013 6:15PM ET

Saul Loeb, AFP / Getty Images

If Hillary Clinton is the more popular than her soon-to-be sucessor, you wouldn’t have known it at John Kerry’s Senate confirmation hearing Thursday. President Obama’s nominee for secretary of state spoke in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he has chaired for the past four years, to praise by both Republicans and Democrats. He urged Congress to focus on the country’s fiscal state. “Foreign policy is economic policy,” he said. Kerry is expected to be voted in by the committee as soon as Monday or Tuesday. “I look at you, in being nominated for this, as someone who has almost led their entire life, if you will, for this moment, being able to serve in this capacity,” said the panel's top Republican, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.